This invention relates to communications among end user communication devices and more specifically to control of access to information delivered by HTTP and confirmation to the originator of the HTTP information of the receipt of the information by the recipient as processed by end user communication devices, especially but not limited to, wireless end user communication devices, which may be made by different manufacturers and/or have different operating systems.
Wireless communication devices are now prevalent throughout all developed countries of the world. Although cellular telephones are currently the most widespread, other types of wireless communication devices include personal digital assistants, laptop computers with Wi-Fi and/or telecommunication carrier communication support, and various types of “pads” that provide visual displays that are larger than conventional cellular telephones but typically smaller than the displays of a laptop computer. Wireless voice communications between mobile devices utilizing different types of communication protocols, e.g. analog, TDMA, CDMA, VoIP, etc., are supported by different telecommunication carriers which provide appropriate communication protocol interfaces/gateways to facilitate voice communications between mobile units using different communication protocols.
Various types of transport layer communication protocols are supported by wireless communication devices. For example, text messaging, short messaging service (SMS), multimedia messaging service (MMS), email such as by simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP), and instant messaging utilizing hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) are available. Each type service is supported by a transport layer communication protocol that is part of the telecommunication signaling structure associated with the transport of user communications and the communication of telecommunication infrastructure commands and signals.
The transfer of information by HTTP communications by users of wireless and non-wireless communication devices is popular. For example, HTTP messaging applications such as WhatsApp, BBM (Blackberry messenger), Apple iMessage, Google Talk, ICQ, AOL Chat, Yahoo!Messenger, Microsoft Messenger, and web services such as Facebook exist. However the originator of an HTTP communication does not know if the recipient/addressee has actually viewed the content of the HTTP communication unless the recipient chooses to originate and send the originator a communication advising that the originator's information has been viewed/read by the recipient. From the HTTP originator's perspective absent such a reply from the recipient/addressee, it should not be assumed that the recipient/addressee did or did not view/read the corresponding information of the HTTP communication. That is, the recipient may have received and viewed/read the HTTP originator's information but not sent a voluntary acknowledgement to the originator advising that the information had been viewed/read, or the HTTP originator's communication may not have reached the recipient for any of a number of reasons, or the HTTP originator's communication may have been delivered to the recipient's device but the information contained in the communication was not viewed/read by the recipient.